A
secret court ruling in which a judge allowed doctors to sedate a
pregnant woman to perform a caesarean without her consent was made
public for the first time yesterday.

The extraordinary document shows how a judge approved an NHS trust’s plan.

A
transcript of the hearing shows how Mr Justice Mostyn, who made the
order, told the court: ‘She should not know about this order before she
is taken and goes to hospital.’

The
woman’s legally appointed representative replied: ‘My Lord, if it
assists, it would be perfectly appropriate to include in the terms of
the order that the substance of it shall not be communicated to the
patient until after . . . the operation. If she disagrees with it she
can apply afterwards to discharge it.’

Grief: Allesandra Pacchieri, who was forced to have her baby delivered by caesarean section and then removed from her by Essex social services

The judge replied: ‘Yes, that is right. So in those circumstances it is appropriate . . .’

He also authorised the use of ‘reasonable and proportionate force’ if needed.

Mr
Justice Mostyn, sitting in the secretive Court of Protection, which
makes decisions for incapacitated people, ruled the caesarean was in the
woman’s best interests and that she was too mentally ill to make the
decision herself.

But he
said it would be ‘heavy-handed’ for police to take her baby at birth and
suggested social workers should make a legal application to take the
newborn into care instead.

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Within
24 hours of his ruling, doctors operated to deliver 35-year-old
Alessandra Pacchieri’s baby and the girl was taken into care without her
consent, prompting international outrage.

Her
lawyers have launched a legal action in a bid to try to get her
daughter back and have said the mother-of-three suffers from a
relatively minor mental illness, a bipolar condition that can be treated
with medication.

The
hearing took place in private, but the judge made the transcript and his
ruling public yesterday, saying he wanted to ‘inform and clarify recent
public comments about this case’.

Mr Justice Mostyn, sitting in the secretive Court of Protection, which makes decisions for incapacitated people, ruled the caesarean was in the woman¿s best interests

Miss
Pacchieri can be named for the first time after a High Court judge said
she was ‘perfectly entitled to identify herself as a person who feels
wronged’.

Mr Justice
Charles granted Essex County Council an injunction banning the media
from identifying the child, who is now 15 months old, or those caring
for her.

But he stopped
short of banning the publication of the mother’s name, saying she was
‘seeking to make assertions to the effect that she has been unlawfully,
wrongly and badly treated’. She has already been named in the Italian
media.

It emerged during
the hearing at the High Court in London that the toddler had been placed
with ‘prospective adopters’ — a further blow for her mother.

Earlier,
her Italian lawyer, Stefano Oliva, said no formal adoption had been
agreed and the mother hoped to have her child returned.

‘She is strong, she has work, she has a job, she has a house, she has a normal life,’ says Mr Oliva.

‘There is absolutely no reason not to allow this woman to have a second chance.’

It also emerged that the Italian government has instructed solicitors and may want to intervene in the case.